Reflections
by Crystalazer
Summary: I know you've always hated me.


**Reflections**

**-- **

I know you've always hated me.

Ever since the day I first laid eyes on you, I knew I loved you. I know you knew I loved you, adored you. You knew…yet you never cared.

Why? Why didn't you care? What was it that drove you to the edge of insanity? How deep is the hate you carry within you? I long to know these things, but I can only guess, because I know you will not tell me.

Sasuke-kun…I just want you to be happy, content to spend the rest of your days, glad to be alive.

But I know that it cannot happen. Once, I thought that maybe, just maybe, it was a dream. I thought it was a dream worth trying to achieve. Now I know that it's impossible. Because you won't let go of the pain, the hurt. I know I can help you, but you won't let me. I've always been the weakest…the Kunoichi…the minority. I know you always thought that I would be the first out of us to die because I couldn't match up to the raw power that both Naruto and you possessed.

I know you've always hated me.

I know, yet…I keep trying. I know it's futile to try to change you, but still I try. I ask myself a thousand times a day why it is I try to help you if you will not let me. I didn't know the answer. I still do not.

I know you've always hated me.

The night you left…I tried to stop you. I didn't want you to get hurt. Sasuke-kun…why do you not understand? Why, why, why? Before that night, I truly believed you had a chance.

The night you left…you lost yourself. You were willing to sever all your ties to Konoha. So many years later, I still wonder, was it worth it? You killed Itachi. You had accomplished your goal in life. You aren't happy.

The night you left…I let you go. I thought that once you killed him, you'd return and everything would go back to normal. I was wrong.

The night you left…I found myself. I spent over half my lifetime groveling at your feet…and for what? I realized that you didn't love me…like me…acknowledge me in any way other than as a teammate. Were you afraid of getting attached to another person? Is that why you've avoided trying to communicate with anyone else?

Even Naruto couldn't get through to you. He promised me that he'd bring you back. "That's the promise of a lifetime!" he told me, not once, but twice. Even after you almost killed him, he promised that he would bring you back for me…he loved me that much. Do you understand that? No…I suppose you don't.

I know you've always hated me.

I don't mind that you hate me anymore. I've got too much to do now than stop and think of my former fantasies of the day you'd finally realize that you loved me as well. Because I know that those days will never be.

I've got two wonderful children and a husband who means the world to me. I'm training a new Genin team. I'm the head Medic-nin in Konoha, second only to Tsunade, who is now retired and travels between the Wind and Fire countries, healing the sick. The Sixth was inaugurated last August.

I couldn't remember ever feeling so proud. Standing up next to him, I wished, vaguely in the very back of my mind that you could be here too, laughing and cheering. The Rookie Nine were all there, but, I digress, we were not the Rookie Nine any longer. We weren't rookies anymore. Three Jounin, two ANBU, two Chuunin, and a new Hokage stood on the platform in front of the whole of Konoha.

They all stood next to me as Naruto recited his inauguration speech. I realized how much I had come to love him, more so than I had ever loved you.

I'm proud to be his wife.

I still visit you sometimes. When spring arrives every year, I like to come and tend the flowers. I talk to you, and you listen, something you've never done before. I make pleasant conversation, and smile at you, and you don't look away.

I feel sorry for you, Sasuke-kun. You lived on, fueled by hatred and thoughts of revenge. Not once did you consider your friends, your teammates, or your village. It was always your problem, your suffering, your tragedy. Yours alone. Alone. That's something no one should have to go through.

You killed him in the end, didn't you? He's dead now, the one you once called "aniki." Did you think about what would happen afterwards? I suppose not.

No…I'm just sorry that it couldn't have been different.

But I don't hate you. I don't hate you like you hated me…hated us. You can't hate us any more because Uchiha Sasuke, you are dead. The Uchiha Clan is dead. You are dead and I am still alive.

I know you've always hated me. Now you have another reason. You lost.

--

A thirty-minute one-shot. I'm not a particularly big fan of Sakura, but I have to admit...she is **really **fun to write. This fic was just...like...empty. Basically me wasting thirty minutes of my life rambling.

_Love it? Hate it? I'll never know unless you review._


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